I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Perch Fishing For CalPers

Interesting piece many might have missed in the news regarding the Surfperch Tournament held for the Samoa Fire District this weekend. I had no idea:

And that's just for the few firefighters from back in the days of old when the Samoa District had paid firefighters. It's been an all- volunteer department since 2001.

I suppose it shouldn't be any surprise that retirements are 100% of their budget. Still, that has to be one of the best examples of where we'll end up if we don't do something about the public employee retirement systems.

One thing that we need to keep in mind when discussing public (or any other) pensions, is that these pensions shouldn't be the only income public workers should have to look forward to after retiring.

The commentary mentions social security, but nothing says these 20 to 30 year employees can't save and invest money on their own throughout their lifetimes. Very often they do just that.

There's also nothing saying retired employees can't find employment after they've retired and a LOT of them do. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but I can't think of one retired government employee I know that didn't go out and get another job after retiring.

4 Comments:

Interesting article on public pensions in the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA)"Latest News for HJTA Members" bulletin titled "Public-sector pensions anything but modest." The commentary appeared in the Washington Examiner on July 27, 2011.

Fred: It was past Fire Chief's that retired and were able to garner sweet retirement deals from past Samoa Peninsula Fire District boards that we are now saddled with. Remember, in the 90's there were around 1,000 union manufacturing jobs on the peninsula and taxes made the Fire Department financially solid. We are still standing though and paying the bills thanks to volunteers holding fundraisers such as this! Thanks to the community for the donations and support!